Sit on the shoulder of a children's book author / illustrator and Urban Sketcher. Nosy into the ups and downs of my world. Find out how my books are created from your spy-hole inside my studio; peek into my sketchbooks; celebrate with me when books are published and help me tear my hair when it's not going to plan!

Monday, 18 April 2016

Knitting Sheep and Throwing Muck!

I am gradually creeping forwards, though it's taking longer than I would like. So many fiddly bits! I am rather pleased with the effect of the muck heap though. My favourite bit on this one is the knitting sheep though. And I really like how the cockerel colours contrast so well against the background:

This is spread 3, coming directly after the artwork I showed you last. You can see Julia's text on the rough which, as usual, was tacked to my drawing board directly above the artwork as I worked, to allow me to keep checking the details of what I was creating, because of course, when you use pastels, a lot of that detail from the pencil drawing gets obliterated:

It's useful, taking a photo of the artwork once it's done. I hadn't realised this before but, seeing it reduced like this really helps me to spot things I've missed. A book like this is a bit of a nightmare, making sure I have coloured every tiny shoe, not missed out any hands, left off any freckles etc. I can see, looking at this artwork, I have forgotten the eyebrows on the lad throwing the muck at his classmate, so he doesn't look quite naughty enough. I'll just go and fix that...

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Lynne Chapman

I have been a children's book illustrator for the last 17 years and have more than 30 published books. I am also an Urban Sketchers correspondent and reportage-artist. My book Sketching People was published by Search Press and Barrons in 2016.
I give inspirational lectures, and run illustration and sketching workshops, both in the UK and abroad, for adults and in schools. I have delivered events in China, Brazil, Spain and the Dominican Republic. In 2017/18 I am running workshops in Chicago, Perth and Sydney.
Email me if you would like to book a talk or workshop. If you are interested in a particular aspect of my work, want to follow an individual project, or find out more about my free monthly SketchCrawls, check out the labels below.

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Special offer on my 7-lesson workshop! The most important aspects of children’s book illustration is good character design. This class will teach you simple techniques to help you draw pretty much any character you fancy. You will learn how to make them believable individuals who feel ‘alive’ to the reader. All you need are the three ‘P’s: pencil, paper and practice!